Craters After Skyfall
by ThisCatWhatDidThat
Summary: Two years since the final fall. Two long years, but now she was ready to take on the world.
1. Chapter 1 In which we begin

"I need a team."

The blue haired bar lady looked up, and was pleasantly surprised to see and old acquaintance of hers.

"Faolin!" She grinned, deftly leaning over the bar to give her a one sided hug. "Erinn will be so glad to see you hun. It`s been what, two years?"

"Twenty months, and twelve days." Came the curt reply. Patty sighed a little inside. The last time she had seen the girl, she was bedridden and had drawn back into her shell, retreating from the world.

"So," She grimly pushed on, fake smile plastered on her face. "You need a team. Three I take it?"

Nod.

"Lemme guess, Healer, Martial Artist, and Mage?"

Shake. "Thief, instead of Martial Artist."

"Really hun? Well, whatever floats your boat." Patty rummaged around the in the stacks of paper, before flourishing one. She handed it over the bar, to the sullen minstrel. "Ah ha! These guys have been hanging around for a bit now. Can't seem to hold a job without pissing off the client, so they've stuck around the inn. They're at table six. Good luck sugar!"

Faolin nodded her thanks, the made her way through the smoky bar room of the inn.

"Ace of clubs."

"Ha, is that the best you have? King of swords."

"Please, we all know who the better player is. Royal flush."

"What? But - How- eh?"

The poker match was interrupted by small leather pouch being dropped unceremoniously on the table with a dull clink. The sound of money. And when you are broke, it is a very good reason to stop and listen.

The first player looked up, squinting his grey eyes, at the taller figure

"May we help you?" he asked politely. She was the one with the money after all.

"You are Fanato, level 37 healer, Janscour, level 39 thief, and Jazca, level 37 mage?" was the stiff reply.

"So what if we are? We don't owe you money. Do we?" the thief turned to better address his companions, taking his feet of the table. The last time they had owed someone money it had ended with three of them being banned from the continent of Gleeba.

"I would guess, as you are offering money, and having just talked to Patty, you would be wanting to hire us, yes?" The voice had the barest hint of an accented, coming from the only female of the trio.

"Correct. You would fight with me as a party, and accompany me, no questions asked. You would get half of any profit from fighting monsters, and inn rooms would be paid for by me. Food, you would have to buy yourself, and the same stands for equipment. Do we have a deal?"

Several eyebrows were raised. This was a generous offer, one you did not see every day. For three down-on-their-luck adventures, it was not one they would see again.

"We'll take it."

"Good." The ghost of a smile flitted over the strange woman's face. "My name is Faolin. I'll meet you here, at 5 o'clock, tomorrow morning. Don't be late." With that, she turned around, and walked off through the tobacco smoke.

"Damn. What an attitude,"

"With that money, she can afford an attitude. Jazca?"

"Hmm?" The purpled hair mage cocked her head, feigning innocence.

"Well? You got into her mind, didn't you?"

"No. She has a surprising number of walls, and when I tried to push past them she showed me a memory of her killing a monster. It wasn't pretty."

"Do we wanna try to find out who she is, or just go with it?" Janscour asked, his feet, now coming back on the table.

"It wouldn't be unreasonable to know who our employer is..." Fanato mused.

"It was really yucky."

"We could maybe ask the inn owners,"

"Or just read their minds,"

"Reading minds would be easier. Can you take the strain?"

"Mmmm, maybe. Who would you suggest?"

Another thump interrupted their conversation. Three guilty heads looked up, at Patty, rather viciously attacking the table with a dishcloth.

"She employ ya then?"

"What if she did?"

Patty snorted. "I suppose you wanna know about her then, right?"

Fanato sighed, putting a placating hand on the tense Janscour. "We were that loud?"

"No. It's bleeding obvious sugar. Last three teams did, and got beaten within an inch of their lives. By her, not me." She hastily added, noticing the worried expressions.

"So, we've just been employed, by a psychopath then?"

Patty sighed again, and eased of attacking the table. "I honestly couldn't tell you hun, even if I wanted to. Look," She straightened up, putting her hands on her hips. "Come by when the crowd is smaller, and I'll tell you what I know." She turned around and sashayed off to the bar.

The celestrian stared at the sky

And stared

And stared

The sky was beautiful

So far

So far away from her

Her home

Maybe

If _it _worked

Maybe

The backroom of the bar was the place where the employees went between shifts, of get a drink (non-alcoholic) or just chat. It was unusually full this evening.

Patty sipped from a mug, whetting her throat. "I first met Faolin in the Hexagon-"

"I thought it was closed years ago!"

The blue haired bar lady glared at Fanato. "It was. Do you wanna hear the story?"

Fanato shut up.

"As I was saying, I met her about three years ago, in the Hexagon. Remember that earthquake that happened around the same time?"

"No, we were in the Bloomingdale area," Jazca said, gesturing to her companions. "Me and Fanato are cousins, and grew up there. Janscour is from a travelling tribe, yes?" A nod confirmed.

"Right, but you still got tremors from the aftershock?"

"Yes?"

"Well, our very own Angel Falls, just north-westish of here, got hit the hardest. The epicentre or, something. Well, according to Erinn, Faolin, fell of the top of the Angel Falls waterfall. Bullshit is what I think. I've tried it myself, and there is no way, any mortal could go through that, there is no way of physically doing it. Anyway, she apparently fell down, and got injured. Healed up, and sent a lot of time staring at those statues... ya know, the weird ones with the wings? To cut a long story short, after hearing about me travelling through the Hexagon, 'cos the road was blocked by rubble from the earthquake, and not turning up, due to being trapped, she went down, fought a load of monsters, days after recovering from that fall, and defeats the Hexagoon, the big evil beastie. Days later, we see her in Stornway, and she is offering to fight the Wight Knight! You should know what that is, and she won! After that, we didn't see her as much, mebbe once a month, but we, at the inn, heard talk, about a green haired slip of a girl, fighting huge monsters, and winning! At first I didn't believe it. One thing to fight the Hexagoon, but dragons the size of mountains!? I think not. If we at the bar asked her, she would not reply, just kinda...shut down. The last time I saw her, before today, she had turned up at the inn, covered in wounds and blood, and was half dead. She was..., there's no other way of putting it, broke. Wouldn't talk, wouldn't eat, wouldn't sleep. Just stared at the sky. One day she upped and left. Tried looking for her, but no tracking spells would work. Figured she would come back when she wanted something, although, seeing her again today," Patty sipped her drink again, thirsty from all her talking. "Was like seeing a ghost of how she used to be."

"Yeah, but where do we come in, in all this?" Janscour said. In his opinion, words were nice, but actions got things done.

"I'm guessing that you want to us find out more about this Faolin, right?" Fanato said head cocked slightly to the left. "What's in it for us?"

Patty spluttered into her tea. "Don't give me that," She managed to choke out. "I got you a job and information. You can repay me, by giving _me_ information. Savvy?"

The grumbled agreement sealed the deal.

**AN **

**Hello! Thanks for reading this. It's actually been kicking around on my computer for a while, so it's nice to finally post it. Please tell me what you think! On another note, I am British, and therefore will be using British English. EDIT: Spell checked, as well as grammar. Sorted out the line breaks. Hopefully.**


	2. Chapter 2 In which there is walking

They set off the next morning, tramping through the soggy forest that surrounded Stornway. Silence cloaked them as Faolin led them, with Fanato, Jazca and Janscour all trailing behind sleepily. They tramped, on and on and on, for what to Janscour, seemed like hours.

"Are we there yet?"

Grunt.

"What does that mean?"

Fanato decided to speak up at this point. "Where are we going exactly?"

Faolin stopped and spun around to face them. "Do you remember the part of the contract that said `No questions`?"

"…Yes."

"Exactly." She turned around again, and stomped off in the undergrowth.

~Linebreak~

The party continued walking throughout the day, stopping only as they came across a small settlement. It was nothing fancy, just a small cluster of houses that belonged to the community there. They managed to blag a stay in the barn, and rested until the morning. Jazca and Janscour fell asleep pretty quickly, what with the mage have, well, pretty awful stamina in Fanato's opinion, and Janscour's near-magical ability to fall asleep almost anywhere, at any time, in any position. Just before he himself fell asleep, he fancied he could see a strange shadow coming from near where the door let moonlight in. His logical mind dismissed it. A trick of the light. Or dark. He slowly drifted off musing to himself woud it be a trick of light or dark, completely forgetting that the shadow look like a pair of colossal wings.

~Linebreak~

AN

Sorry for the short chapter, I've moved house and currently I am sick. Which sucks. On another note, I hope to update more regularly. Also this story takes place in a slight AU. The world is a lot bigger, with more small settlements and the towns being bigger. Kinda like Skyrim.

Please review, and I will write include your OCs! (Shameless advertising is Shameless!)


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